Ok, gonna have another crack at this. After gaining almost 80 new creds in the space of 10 days on a road trip this past summer, I'd sort of given up on having a definitive top 10. Too much effort, too many contenders, too hard to narrow it down to just 10.
Top 10% seems more realistic to me, so that's roughly what this is. Pretty much all of these I feel are, or at least were at some point, worthy of inclusion in a Top 10.
No spreadsheets, no graphs, no algorithms - this is all based off gut feeling alone.
1. Steel Vengeance. Durr.
2. Helix. Truly a thing of beauty. So classy, so elegant, intense, fun and infinitely rerideable. And those on-board lights at night!
3. X2. The polar opposite of Helix - huge, brutal, subtle as a brick... and f***ing awesome!
4. Nemesis. Yessss, the old favourite. I know things have "moved on" since those days, but my love for this ride will never die.
5. Top Thrill Dragster. It's like Kingda Ka, only much better. Lapbars, theming, revving engine noises, traffic light countdown on the tower, Republica, and did I mention the lapbars? And also, it doesn't rattle like a bitch.
6. Outlaw Run. Badass ride, this. Loved it.
7. Taron. If it wasn't for night-time ERT, this ride wouldn't be anywhere near as high. But there is night-time ERT on Taron, and it's one of the best 60 minutes you can have as a goon, so into the top 10 it goes.
8. Behemoth. Hands down the most sustained, glorious floater airtime I've ever experienced.
9. Wildfire. Location, location, location.
10. Tatsu. Spectacular coaster, this. Massive, intense and my God, that pretzel loop.
11 - 20. From here on, things get a bit more vague, so rather than ranking everything in exact order, here are the next 10:
• El Toro.
• Dragon Khan. Classic, old skool B&M muscle coaster.
• Revenge of the Mummy (Orlando). FIRE!!
• Kingda Ka. The big green penis. Not as good as TTD, obvs, but I can't ignore the sheer terror I felt when waiting for it to launch.
• Leviathan.
• Voyage. Would be a lot higher if it wasn't quite so brutal.
• Colossos
• Pulsar. Every park should get one of these. Brilliant fun.
• Oblivion. Not for what it is now, but for what it was back then - a true 90's masterpiece. Still one of the scariest things I've ever done in a theme park.
• Volcano - The Blast Coaster.
And the next 10:
• The other Wildfire at SDC. Like its namesake, this beautiful, old skool B&M benefits from being in a stunning location.
• Balder.
• Storm Chaser.
• Thunderbird. The best of the B&M wing riders.
• Dominator. The best of the B&M floorless coasters.
• Beast. Ranking based on one, solitary, pitch-black night ride. What an experience, tho!
• i305.
• Verbolten.
• Banshee.
• Troy. TROY!
And finally, a few more:
• Raptor (CP). Purely for the roar.
• Olympia Looping.
• Thunderlooper.
• Stealth.
• T'Ultimate.
That's about it, roughly 10% of my total count. Of course, there are lots of other coasters I've ridden that are very very good indeed, but these are the ones that I feel stand out from the crowd, that are noteworthy.